Anglo-Irish Agreement

The Anglo-Irish Agreement was a treaty between the United Kingdom and Ireland that was signed on 15 November 1985 with the goal of creating a stable government in Northern Ireland and assuring Ulster unionists that Northern Ireland would not become a part of Ireland unless the majority of people voted in its favor. Ireland gained a consultative role in supervising the Royal Ulster Constabulary and had some say in the province of Northern Ireland, while it acknowledged that a united Ireland would not be achieved unless the majority of the population of Northern Ireland supported it.

The agreement upset Ulster Protestants, who believed that Thatcher had "sold them down the river", as many of them had said. Massive protests occurred, with the unionist parties holding rallies and criticizing Thatcher's supposed betrayal of Ulster, and the protests became a recruiting ground for Ulster paramilitary groups; the young Johnny Adair, the most infamous Ulster Defense Association leader, attended the protests. Young Protestant thugs would rush into the streets and start riots against the agreement, injuring 38 policemen with rocks and bottles while tearing down the gates of the building hosting the Anglo-Irish Conference in Belfast. The unionist leaders called for the protests to be "dignified", and unionist leader Ian Paisley claimed that he had no knowledge of the violence. While the purpose of the agreement was to fight against Sinn Fein and the Provisional IRA, it instead hurt the unionist cause.